


reunite

by moth_writes



Series: smiling fate [5]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Carry On Countdown (Simon Snow), F/F, Fluff, No Smut, Past Relationship(s), Sleepless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27779239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moth_writes/pseuds/moth_writes
Summary: Ebb can't sleep. She knows where to go for help.
Relationships: Ebeneza "Ebb" Petty/Fiona Pitch
Series: smiling fate [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026844
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the Carry On Countdown Days 5/6: Sleepless and WLW

EBB

I can’t sleep.

I never can, this time of year. Christmas, and my brother gone. My twin gone.

I miss him, and it haunts me at night.

I still wake before the sun-have for years, can’t stop now. I’ve the goats to tend to, I can’t be laying ‘round all day just ‘cause of some lost sleep.

More and more it’s been entirely sleepless. I could catch some hours, a week, two, ago. Now I barely blink but for crying.

It’s the goats starting to complain that finally does me in. I’m powerful, sure, but power is nothing on no sleep.

So I dig up the scrap of paper from my nightstand and call.

  
  


FIONA  
  


I’m still awake when my phone rings.

It’s late, near midnight, but I never sleep before one. Not like I do anything during the day-my inheritance left me with more than enough, I’ll never have to work again if I don’t want to-so I sleep til noon most days.

I don’t recognize the number. I figure it’s another of the Coven’s lackeys calling for a job-they never respect the time, I’ve had them call at all hours.

When I pick up, though, it’s a voice I know. Better than my own, even.

One I’d never thought I’d hear again.

“Fiona Pitch?”

  
  


EBB

I get to London in a little under an hour.

It’s strange. I haven’t left the grounds in so long, and the world has changed so much since I was eighteen.

Fiona meets me at the door, dressed in a leather jacket and dark jeans. Her hair is longer than I remember it. 

I’m still in a knitted sweater and work jeans. I’d spelled the gates to open and the feed to pour itself in the morning before I’d left in case I’m gone longer than planned, and my hair’s gone all frizzy from it.

She beckons me over and we go.

  
  


FIONA

I don’t know why my heart is tripping in my chest.

(I do, but Basil didn’t learn to ignore his feelings from his oaf of a father. I wish, briefly, that I hadn't taught him that, no matter how indirectly. He’d be much happier if he could just up and face them like Malcolm.)

I let her in and half wish I’d bothered to clean up. There’s cans cluttered on the counter and my laundry is in a pile by the bathroom door. It’s not dirty, but it’s messy, and the Ebb I knew always kept her things very neat.

I wonder if she still does. I wonder if she remembers the days she’d help me clean and reorganize, when she’d sing to me and braid my hair.

No one but me has touched my hair in years. Not since Nat died. Not since we broke up eighth year.

I motion to the couch, which I’d had the forethought to clear off, and she sits.

I have the mixture she needs already in a jar on the counter. I just have to boil water to pour over it, so I put the kettle on and join her.

Ebb sits neatly on my couch. She looks out of place, all knit jumpers and muscled softness. 

I lean against the doorframe and watch her.

She watches me.

I make up my mind. I’ve missed her. I’m still half in love with her.

Even if we can’t go back to where we were, _what_ we were, I want us to be friends. 

New beginnings and all that, yeah?

I open my mouth and let the words pour out.


	2. Chapter 2

EBB

I don’t know what to do with my hands.

I tuck them into my lap while I look around. Fiona’s flat looks much like I expected it to. I’m grateful for it, the thought she might not’ve changed all that much from what I knew.

There’s noise from the kitchen, the clicking I recognize as a gas stove and the sound of the tap running. I wonder what she’s doing.

I never was one for plants-Fi was always the one with the green thumb. I stuck to my goats, though I gleaned enough from her to know the basics.

(I wonder if I’m still allowed to call her that. I don’t know. I’ve only ever dated two, and a dryad is very good at making herself unseen when she wants, no matter how many time you go back to the forest.)

Then there’s footsteps, and when I look up Fiona’s leaning against the doorframe.

  
  


FIONA

I don’t know what I’m saying. 

I feel the words rushing, and I know I must have some sort of plan, but my mind is disconnected and whirring.

She’s just sitting there, staring at me. Her eyes are wide and surprised-I can see her whole iris, ringed with white.

I swallow hard and curse myself for showing weakness now. She opens her mouth but I cut her off before she can say anything.

“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same,” I say, rushing my words together. “I can leave, or you can, and you’ll never have to see me-”

“Wait,” she says, and I jump. “I never...I never said I don’t feel the same. You-”she stops and looks at me, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully. 

The kettle whistles in the kitchen. I throw her one last look and go to fetch it.

…

We’re sitting in silence in the living room. 

I sat on the opposite side of the couch, and she didn’t move closer. I’m sure she hates me. 

I shouldn’t have said all of what I did. I should’ve been like Basil, kept everything bottled up inside and never let it out.

But I’ve wanted to say those words for a decade now, and I’m not getting younger. Nat died young, and if I do too I want to with as little regret as I can. (None is impossible, but I’ll aim low.) And I definitely would’ve regretted not telling her.

I could have waited for a better moment. In the heat of battle, or when I know I’ll never see her again. Instead we sit here in awkward silence, avoiding eye contact while she sips her remedy.

Ebb sets the empty mug on the coffee table and the noise startles me out of my thoughts. I glance at her, then away quickly.

I feel like a schoolgirl around her first crush, for fucks’ sake.

I look at her again and this time I meet her eyes. I’m grateful my complexion doesn’t show much-her ruddy cheeks are bright, and mine would match were I paler.

“It’ll set in quickly,” I say. “Magic’s meant to hurry it. You’ll be out in-” I glance at the clock on the mantle-”about five minutes. Come on.”

I stand and wait for her to. She does, though she seems unsteady. I want to put my hand on her elbow, to help steady her, but I don’t want to overstep. I lead her towards my bedroom, ignoring her objections.

“No, you sleep in your bed, I’ll take the couch-”

“I just bloody drugged you, I’m not letting you sleep on my couch,” I tell her as sternly as I can manage. We’re both stubborn, but the magic’s setting in and her resolve wavers.

“Fine.” she says huffily. I almost smile, but I school my expression into something I hope is neutral enough. Ebb’s sly, if she sees weakness she’ll take it and all my efforts will be in vain.

She sits on the side of my bed-thank magic I had the foresight to see this coming and clean up a bit. 

My heart is beating too fast. I don’t think it’s gone a normal rate since she arrived.

I motion her to lie down and she does. Ebb is yawning and blinking heavily; it won’t be long before she’s out. I busy myself with making sure the blackout curtains are completely closed and there’s enough blankets on the bed.

I watch Ebb wrap herself in blankets, tucking the end under her feet the way I remember.

We’ve been apart for so long but in every movement she makes I see the girl I fell in love with years ago.

I leave as silently as I can, pulling the door shut behind me with a soft click. 

The flat seems larger now, and quieter. Messier, too. I haven’t cleaned in a while; I’ve been either too busy or unable to leave the couch.

The remedy will knock Ebb right out for a solid eight hours, I don’t have to worry about making noise. I decide to start in the kitchen, with the dishes mouldering in the sink.

  
  


EBB

It’s dark when I wake up.

I’m confused for a moment before I remember where I am. My first thought is the goats, but they’re taken care of and I’m too far away to do anything for them anyway.

The light filtering through the heavy curtains is faint. I can’t tell what time it is.

I stand and stretch, and I already feel so much better. I didn’t realize how much the lost sleep was affecting me until I made it up, but now I’m wondering how I lasted so long going without.

I wander into the kitchen. Everything’s clean now-Fiona must’ve done that after I went to bed.

There’s music playing quietly from a mobile on the counter, something with a lot of screaming noise. I can’t tell the words, but I don’t know if that’s because of the volume or if there aren’t any.

Fiona’s standing over the stove with a lit cigarette in one hand and a spatula in the other. There’s a pan frying and the smell of eggs and bacon.

I lean against the doorframe and watch.

Fiona notices me soon and turns to grin wickedly. The hair on the backs of my arms stand on end. I smile back.

“Well, hello there,” she drawls, taking a drag from her cigarette. She points the spatula at me, exhales smoke with her next words. “How’d you sleep?”

“Fine,” I say. “Great. That tea worked wonders, Fi.”

She scoffs. “Not tea, a _remedy_. Know the difference, love.”

She’s more comfortable, like she’s decided something.

I have to.

I wait until she’s taken the pan of the stove and turned the flame of-how does she have a gas stove in this fancy flat?-and corner her at the sink.

“Hi,” I say, and she raises an eyebrow.

“Hello,” she says and offers me her cigarette. I take a drag even though I quit years ago and blow the smoke into her face. She smiles like I told her a secret, then stubs the butt out in the sink.

“I was thinking,” I tell her and she snorts.

“What a surprise,” she says and it’s teasing like we used to do. “Do tell me. What about?”

She’s trying to play cool, but I know her. There’s a stress wrinkle around her eyes and she’s breathing just a bit too fast.

I hum. “Breakfast first.”

I lean in slowly, giving her time to move away, and kiss her gently. It feels like when we were young, like coming home after long nights away.

It feels like a new start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> this was not meant to be like this. i wanted to write a cute little oneshot with a hopeful ending and do like, Trixie and Keris or something for WLW. instead this spiraled, so. Chapter 2 will be posted tomorrow.
> 
> (I read one Fiona/Ebb fic. _One. _And now it's taken over.)__


End file.
